Before Barack Obama took the stage in front of a crowd of 75,000 in Portland yesterday, the Decemberists played a stacked set concluding with a mass singalong on “Sons & Daughters,” with� its drawn-out chorus of “Here all the bombs fade away.” The song, a rallying cry for hope, peace, and…mouthfuls of cinnamon, seemed to strike an appropriate-if-predictable tone for Obama’s largest congregation to date.

But it’s worth remembering some other theme songs that have scored the candidates’ respective campaigns. In January, Obama took mild heat when his campaign included a prominent rendition of Jay-Z’s “99 Problems”� at his Iowa victory bash. As the New York Post notes, the song’s refrain, famous for its assertion that of Hova’s 99 problems, “a bitch ain’t one,”� struck some as a Hillary dig.

The same Post piece gives a run-down on some other notable campaign jingles, including Hillary’s invocation of the Céline Dion turkey “You & I,” also featured in a strange and maudlin campaign video with viral intent:

…not to be confused, naturally, with the 2ge+her-worthy “hillary4u+me”:

Elsewhere, the ever-provocative RightWingNews.com offers suggestions for the DailyKos “Obama Theme Song” list, with snarky offerings from the Platters‘ “The Great Pretender” to Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” to “Cocaine,” which they bafflingly attribute to ZZ Top. (Come on, guys, even Republicans should know their J.J. Cale from their ZZ Top.)

Meanwhile, Harold Meyerson’s most recent op-ed in the Washington Post puts forth a promising possibility for McCain’s theme song going into the general election:

If the McCain campaign is still trying out songs, there’s one by a couple of Brits, W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, that it should consider. We have to change the words “an Englishman” to “American” to get it to work, but, that done, the song expresses succinctly and entirely the case for John McCain and, by implication, against Barack Obama:

For he himself has said it,
And it’s greatly to his credit,
That he is American!
That he is American!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the sum total of the Republican message this year…. For some, “American” is a race — white — no less than a nationality, and it’s on this equation that Republican prospects depend.

Not exactly the scathingest thing Meyerson’s ever written, but an apt choice for the whitest party (no black national politicians; blacks compose 2 to 4 percent of the Republican electorate across the board) since Alexander Kerensky got drunk with a gang of polar bears.

In short, Jackie Wilson–whose”Higher” rates only seventh on the Daily Kos list–is most likely absent from the McCain campaign’s iPod Shuffle….

…the closest thing being “Johnny B. Goode,” which (for a while) was nearly as ubiquitous at McCain victory rallies as Joe Lieberman. For a while, I dug the choice (Chuck Berry, not Joe Lieberman), until I did the math and realized that when the single came out in ‘58, McCain was already too old to think it was cool.

Next stop on the Straight-Talk Express: Perry Como.

Think you’ve got a snappy choice for campaign theme song? Tell us about it in the comments.

TED, an annual conference in Monterey, California, where lots of smart people say lots of smart stuff about all manner of things, has a great Web site, much of it built on conference videos. Today it’s featuring a talk by Jakob Trollback, a designer who made a video for “Moonlight in Glory,” a track from the Brian Eno-David Byrne collaboration My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. The intro patter on the Web page makes this seem like an amazingly counterintuitive project: “What would a music video look like if it were purely directed by the music? Not driven by a concept, nor by a desire to build an image, but purely as an expression of a great song?” Well, here it is:

Flashing lights? Intertitles? Yeah, I’m not excited either. I’m sticking with this as the “purest” music video ever made:

Nobody in the English-language music press seems to be reporting it–even at Pitchfork, which is usually on top of these things–but Klaus Dinger, cofounder of krautrock greats Neu! and La Dusseldorf, died of heart failure on March 21. He was four days shy of his 62nd birthday.

Dinger was a composer and drummer, most responsible for the “motorik” rhythm that defined early Kraftwerk, Neu!, and much of the small “krautrock” movement. He and the other half of Neu!, Michael Rother, also anticipated the remix trend when they ran out of money for their second album and simply filled one side with versions of two previously released songs that they had manipulated by speeding up, slowing down, and warping tape.

Dinger’s second band, La Dusseldorf had a tremendous influence on the work of Brian Eno and David Bowie, particularly their “German” collaborations on Low, Heroes, and Lodger.

Still, Neu! remains Dinger’s definitive work. The below video isn’t terribly interesting to look at, but does feature the band’s signature song, “Hallogallo.”

So long, Klaus.

Kev Brown, who is a featured producer at Friday’s BeatDown producer showcase at Club Five, breaks down the secrets to his production style in this great video:

One of the region’s production stars, Kev has worked with the likes of De La Soul, Marley Marl, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Raheem Devaughn, Biz Markie, and a number of local hip-hop artists. With his process firmly rooted in the MPC based technique of beat making, he has forged a unique sound that pays homage to such greats as Pete Rock and the late J-Dilla. Definitely check him out on Friday–it should be a great event with a number of talented producers and hip hop acts on the bill.

Also: Kev and Los Angeles’ LMNO have just released a collaborative project entitled ‘Selective Hearing’ on Up Above Records. Support that real hip hop!

Double Bonus: Kev Brown and Kaimber at last month’s J-Dilla Tribute at XM performing a cover of “The Official”

Last Friday, the Ruby Suns opened for locals Le Loup at the Black Cat. My camera only had enough juice for the Ruby Suns.

I couldn’t believe that the Suns took an opening slot. The New Zealand trio’s new album–Sea Lion–is amazing. I can claim some amount of ownership since I dug their debut a few years back. But this one is a huge leap–ping-ponging between afro-pop references, ’80s dance beats, and zany psych interludes. It’s what Neutral Milk Hotel would sound like now.

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Arizona DJ Ruthless Ramsey is featured in this YouTube video ’scratching’ tapes on two commercial boomboxes hooked up via a DJ mixer. An aspiring DJ since his younger days, he wound up as a tape jockey when he was on welfare and couldn’t afford a pair of turntables.

It’s nice to see someone bring this level of innovation back to the field of DJing. After all, this is where hip-hop comes from–taking what you have and making it fresh. While the horde of hunched-over laptop DJs have reformatted the artform by clicking and dragging their way into the future, it’s nice to see someone rewind the game back to its essence.

More on tape scratching:

Last week, when I interviewed Child Ballads for another local publication, singer/guitarist Stuart Lupton told me that when the band performed on Wednesday at Velvet Lounge the line-up would be him and guitarist Luke Wyatt performing a song heavily influenced by the work of director Michael Mann. So I kind of expected something along these lines.

That’s not necessarily what transpired, however. Instead, Lupton spent most of the evening reading his poetry and sharing the stage with former Cramps/Gun Club/Bad Seeds guitarist Kid Congo Powers (who read from of his memoirs). When Child Ballads finally performed they did not conjure the ghost of Sonny Crockett so much as that of J. Spaceman. But I dunno, maybe that’s for the best.

Before the start of St. Vincent’s show last night at the Rock & Roll Hotel, the front row politely filled up with a squad of shutterbugs. This indie paparazzi broke down into two camps: sheepish girls with slumped shoulders and super-serious boys. (Full disclosure: I was one of those super-serious boys. I recorded the video above.)

One boy wasn’t a boy at all. He was a grown man. And he wanted everyone to know he was just a little more pro than the rest. He had a resume of old images. He shared it, running down a list of bands whose souls he’s captured. He added–presumably filed under other specialties–”I also shot a lot of parties. Nightlife.” Then he mentioned that he had shot Coldplay.

This is what an indie-darling-of-the-moment must face. St. Vincent (real name Annie Clark) released her debut album, Marry Me, last year. Clark had done time in the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens‘ band. It’s not a bad resume. But it’s still a huge leap from being just another robe among the Spree and just another ironic cheerleader in Stevens’ traveling folk-art pop circus to a singer with her own songs and a blogosphere willing to make her every utterance a viral affair.
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This just in: A new Beach House video. Its for “You Came To Me” off their upcoming album, Devotion, and directed by Baltimore underground film legend Skizz Cyzyk. I can’t think of a better video to wake up to on this shit morning:

So Christian came up with this look for last night’s female-wrestler-centric episode of Project Runway:

And I’m like, “Wasn’t that in Snoop’s video?”